Dear Mattie...

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 8:12 pm

I was doing a search on the internet when I came across this page for the Fall River Historical Society Report. The FRHS acquired the personal letters of Martha Gray Davol whom was alive during Lizzie's lifetime and had a relationship with Victoria Lincoln's father, Jonathan Thayer Lincoln!!!

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"Mrs. Davol had many friends and acquaintances but Fall River's Lizzie Borden was apparently not one of them. She writes to Mattie about a trip to Europe to be taken by "Nellie Shove, Elizabeth A. Borden (I do not know who she is), Anna Borden and Carrie Borden." This was Lizzie Borden's great trip to Europe. Was her social status a bit below that of the other travelers that Mrs. Davol didn't know her?"

"After her two years at Miss Dana's Seminary, Martha returned home to Fall River, where in 1891 and 1892 she was receiving letters from yet a third young man. Jonathan Thayer Lincoln, who signs his name as Thayer. Thayer Lincoln graduated from the B.M.C. Durfee High School in the same year as Martha, 1888, and received his A.B. degree from Harvard in 1892. He also seems fond of Martha, he writing that he is not too busy to think of her frequently, more than of anyone else. Many of his letters mention arrangements for Martha to meet him in Boston to attend performances by Sarah Bernhardt, Lillian Russell, etc. Unlike Mrs. Davol, Thayer Lincoln does know who Lizzie Borden is. In a letter written a month after she was acquitted of the murder of her father and stepmother, Lincoln aptly comments,"the town was all astir on Sunday because Lizzie Borden went to church. I don't see why it should bother people so, for if she is guilty, is not church the best place for her?"

Here is a link for the page, you'll need Adobe Acrobat reader to view it:

http://www.lizzieborden.org/pdf%5CSumme ... 12num1.pdf[/url]

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 9:45 pm

Oh thank you!
That is from the Quarterly Reports put out by the FRHS.
Some here subscribe, and it gets one a nice discount!

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 8:32 pm

You're welcome, Kat. Its old news, but, still interesting. It gives you a slice of life in ol' Fall River during Lizzie's day.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 12:40 am

You are so good at searching!
Yes, for those who don't subscribe, it is very cool that past issues have been transferred onto the new FRHS web-site.
It's good for people to know about the benefits derived there.

Tina-Kate · Post by **Tina-Kate** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:34 pm

Thanks, Susan. I've always liked that Mrs Davol quote for its irony -- I bet she knew who Lizzie was by Aug 1892!

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 7:35 pm

You're welcome, Tina-Kate, I love the line attributed to Thayer Lincoln about church! I've actually heard the line before, I believe on one of the Lizzie shows, but, I think someone else was quoted as saying it?

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:49 pm

I've found another Fall River Historical Society Report page! This one has an article penned by one of Lizzie's contemporaries, Charles Henry Wells. In the article he tells of how Alice Russell and Lizzie Johnston dropped Lizzie as a friend after becoming convinced that she was probably guilty. Interesting read!

Click here

http://www.lizzieborden.org/pdf%5CFall2002vol14num3.pdf[/i]

diana · Post by **diana** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 1:37 am

Oh! I'm glad to see that article again. It's been reproduced before -- in an old LBQ maybe? Someone will know. Anyway -- I remember that line about someone passing Well's office just before 11 and saying something about Andrew Borden and his wife. There's precognition for you! Thanks, Susan. It is an interesting read.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 2:59 am

You're welcome, Diana. Yes, isn't that creepy, someone mentions the Bordens and next you know he hears they are dead! I never knew that the FRHS put out such a paper before, its wonderful, just chockful of Lizzie stuff.

diana · Post by **diana** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 12:27 pm

Now there's an example of two different takes on the same material.

I was actually being little sarcastic -- and intimating that the writer was mistaken in his recollection as to when he heard about the murders-- but now I can see that the remark about Andrew Borden and his wife that Wells heard just before 11 could have been altogether unconnected with the crime.

Leaping to conclusions is rarely a productive exercise -- but I never seem to learn that lesson!

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 8:24 pm

Oh, its a simple enough thing to do. I actually went back to the article to check and see if I read it right, heres the passage in question:

"On the day of the murders, C.H. Wells was in his office alone in Fall River and overheard Mr. Philip H. Borden, then City Engineer, say something about "Andrew Borden and his wife" as he passed the open door of the office just before 11 o'clock. Soon after this time Rev. Edwin A. Buck, in charge of the Central Mission, came into Mr. Wells office and told him the news of the murder, adding that he was on his way to make a call upon "Lizzie"."

I wonder now what was said about Andrew and Abby Borden? Something casual, gossip, business related? However farfetched, there might be a clue in there somewhere.

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:32 am

Charles Henry Wells in his article is confident that Alice Russell and Elizabeth Johnstown (Johnston) "dropped" Lizzie after both became convinced of Lizzie's possible guilt. Unfortunately he does not address any break in their relationships with Emma. My reading of Alice's official testimony is that she was as vague as possible when she could be, meaning she maintained some loyalty to Lizzie (and Emma) at least through June of 1893. The impression I have gotten from some other writers is that Lizzie and Emma broke off the friendship with Alice after Alice testified; Wells' account is helpful in giving a different perspective to this situation.

Also interesting in Wells' account is his hearing someone make reference to "Andrew Borden and his wife" just before 11 AM on the morning of the murders. I wonder if this was coincidence or if Wells was mistaken about the time and it was really after 11 AM that he heard this.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 10:25 pm

It makes more sense if he heard it later and it was the altercation at the Borden's to which he referred.
But Abby wasn't found until after 11:30 and then it would take time for that news to get out.
Dr. Bowen was town crier that day and that was only about finding Andrew's body- and that timing was about 11:30.

It's curious.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 2:33 am

Perhaps all that Wells heard about from Rev. Buck was that Andrew had been murdered? I reread the sentence and it could be refering to just one murder:

Soon after this time Rev. Edwin A. Buck, in charge of the Central Mission, came into Mr. Wells office and told him the news of the murder, adding that he was on his way to make a call upon "Lizzie"."

No plural, could it just be the one?